Misunderstandings and Mercury

As we go about our lives, nothing is more important than being able to express who we are and what we are feeling or thinking to others. But how many times have you felt that they just didn’t understand you?  Conversely, have you also had the experience of hearing someone speak and somehow what they are saying makes no sense to you?

Chances are what is influencing this misunderstanding is a difference in style of communication or incompatible Mercury's.

Mercury rules communication – our thought processes, how we listen or receive information, and the ease (or not) and style of sharing our thoughts and awareness.  The differences between Mercury’s sign, house placement and planetary aspects in our charts help to fuel misunderstandings if unharmonious or enhance a feeling of closeness if favorable.

For example, my Mercury in Pisces has a great capacity to receive information from many sources at once.  I can multi-tract. That means, I can hear what you are saying and be thinking about several other things at the same time.  When it come to communicating my thoughts, it becomes more difficult because I am in essence narrowing my awareness to fit into specific words that form sentences.  It is easy for me to mix metaphors as I seek to communicate what I am feeling, as any one who has come to me for a reading may attest.

Pisces is a water sign.  People with Mercury in water signs (Cancer, Scorpio, and Pisces) may find communicating exactly what they are feeling to others is a bit difficult.  Someone listening with Mercury in an air sign (Gemini, Libra, and Aquarius) might find it hard to fathom what you are saying because they are more interested in logic and thus miss the subtle feeling sense that a water sign Mercury seeks to express.

People with Mercury in a fire sign (Aries, Leo, and Sagittarius) tend to talk fast and with such passion that frustration arises for people with Mercury in an earth sign (Taurus, Virgo, Capricorn).  When they receive information they are looking for practical, useful details not what they may experience as a burst of hot air from a fire sign Mercury. 

Naturally, people who share the same element have the greatest of ease in communication – a Pisces Mercury to a Cancer Mercury can communication much more that the words would convey as they both appreciate the subtle nuisances below the surface.  A Gemini Mercury and an Aquarian Mercury will talk for hours sharing perspectives on world peace, the digital divide or the entomology of words, while a Virgo Mercury and a Capricorn Mercury may go over details of the work to be accomplished in the next week.  It is the Aries Mercury and the Leo Mercury who can find themselves in a competitive attempt to upstage the other with the importance of their newest endeavor.

So consider...  How much better could your communication with a partner, a co-worker, or a family member be if you knew the basis of the other’s communication style (Mercury)?  Allowances could be made to accommodate differences.  When something really important needs to be said, expressing it in a mode that the other person can understand prevents much conflict and heartache.  Understanding each other’s Mercury placement is just one way you can benefit from a compatibility reading.